An automated 24-hour CAR-T manufacturing process

Mina Ahmadi is a R&D lead scientist at Thermo Fisher Scientific where she focuses on developing end-to-end closed and automated viral and non-viral cell therapy workflows. Dr. Ahmadi received her Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from McGill University, Canada. After her Ph.D., she joined as Postdoctoral Fellow at Department of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, Canada.

Fabio Fachin, PhD, is the Head of Cell Therapy Process Development, Automation and Digital Technologies at Takeda, a company focusing on off-the-shelf, allogeneic cell therapies targeting both solid tumors and hematological malignancies. Prior to Takeda, Dr. Fachin was at Novartis where he contributed to the development of Kymriah, and at Torque Therapeutics where he was VP of Cell Therapy Development and Manufacturing. Dr. Fachin holds a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship from Harvard Medical School. His early career was in the aerospace sector, developing micro-technologies for aircraft and satellite guidance.

Dr. Soong Poh Loong (PL) previously worked as a Senior Research Scientist at the CardioVascular Metabolic Disease – Translational Research Program (CVMD-TRP) Program at the School of Medicine in the National University of Singapore (NUS-SOM). He was a Principal Investigator for the Genotype-Phenotype Assessment of Variants of Uncertain Significance (VUS) project, funded by the National University Health System.

With expertise in human stem cell science and translational cardiac tissue engineering, PL's research interests center around stem cell-based disease modelling, heart regeneration, and repair. He holds a Dr. rer. nat. degree from the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Germany, with a thesis and patent on Engineered Heart Muscles for heart failure treatment. This work has progressed to a First-in-Human clinical trial of the BioVAT-HF therapeutic device for terminal heart failure. PL also co-founded a Singapore biotech startup that develops high-speed platforms for cellular characterization, disease modeling, and drug safety screening.